


Colours in the Wind

by Shadowmatic



Series: Like Blood on Snow [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Afghanistan, Discussions of Proposals, Guilt, Multi, POV Third Person, War, markets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 11:15:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21098564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmatic/pseuds/Shadowmatic
Summary: The flags, flapping in the wind, reminded her of her parents, of Everest.





	Colours in the Wind

Nina always hated the days that they had off. She understood that being in the military was a lot of hurry up and wait, but at least when they were doing something, she was able to occupy her thoughts with something other than them. On off days, she didn’t have the chance. 

She was sitting outside of the tent that she shared with the other women in their platoon, trying to read. There were six of them, which out of a fifteen man platoon wasn’t too bad, and none of them were there except Nina. It was surprisingly quiet, and Nina hated it. 

“Did the book do something to piss you off?” Marisa asked, breaking Nina out of her thoughts. 

“What?” Nina asked, shutting the book in question, uncaring of what page she had been on, and turning to the medic. 

“You look angry. Did the book do something to piss you off?” 

“I’m not angry.” Nina said. She wasn’t feeling anything really, or so she told herself. 

“Cool. Do you want to go into the market with me?” They were near a relatively large town, and apparently it was market day. 

“Sure.” Nina shoved the book back into the back of the chair and stood up. “You looking for something, or do you just want to go and look?” 

“A bit of both.” Marisa said. 

It turned out that they were not the only ones going into the market, and Ahmad Pike and Lee Fisher joined their little party. 

“Did you hear that West and Hadfield are stepping out together?” Fisher asked as soon as they were passed the borders of camp, headed off down the road. Nina wasn’t sure how they had managed to wrangle a drop off in town, but they had. 

“Like?” Pike made a crude hand gesture that they were all easily able to interpret. 

“Well yeah, but I think they’re actually, like going steady.” Fisher said, leaning their head back against the wall. 

“Well, so long as we don’t get any unexpected babies, I don’t care.” Marisa said, giving them all hard looks. “That goes for the rest of you as well.” 

“Pinkie promise.” Nina said, offering her hand to Marisa. “I will not have any babies, unexpected or otherwise.” 

Marisa took the promise with a laugh. 

“Gay.” Pike whispered, and Marisa kicked him. 

The market was a lot more than Nina had expected. She knew that it was ridiculous to picture it as being like the farmer’s markets that they had back home, but that was always what she thought of when she thought of a market. 

There were similarities, sure, but not a lot. The whole town had to be there, and the streets were bustling. 

“Stay with me.” Marisa said, gripping Nina’s hand tightly in her own. “I need your advice on something.” 

Nina had no idea what she wanted Nina’s advice on, but she nodded, following Marisa into the crowd. Pike and Fisher had already vanished, and Nina hopped that they would stay safe. 

They wandered through the market for a couple of hours. Marisa bought a couple of things before stopping at a stall that was selling colourful silk scarves. They covered the table, and spilled out from under it. Scarves also hung from the bar that helped to hold up the canopy, and Nina looked away. Marisa started to look through them, the vender, a kind looking older lady chattering away as she did so. 

She was staring at the flags across the street, the brightly coloured pendants flapping in the wind, reminding Nina so much of her parents, and of Everest, even more than the fluttering scarves had, when Marisa tugged on her arm. 

“Which one do you like better?” She asked, and Nina looked at the two scarves that she was considering. One was orange with green patterns on it, the other purple with blue. 

Nina pondered it for a minute. Phoebe would have liked the orange one, and Nina almost said the purple one because of that, but she liked the orange one better as well. 

“I like the orange one.” Nina said, and Marisa nodded. She purchased it, and then pulled Nina off to get food. 

“Can I ask you something?” Marisa asked, as they ate curry that was hot enough to burn the roof of Nina’s mouth, and spicy enough to remind her of Carlos. It seemed that everything, even in a country so far removed from everything that she had ever known, reminded her of people that she had left behind, of people that she had failed. 

“Sure.” Nina said, pushing the thought out of her mind. 

“I want to propose to my girlfriend at the end of this tour.” Marisa said. “But I, I want. Do you think it’s too cheesy to propose to her right at the end of the tour, like at the airport?” 

“It’s a bit cheesy.” Nina said. “Would she like that?” 

“She said that she wants that kind of proposal. The big, totally over the top kind of proposal. We’d already be engaged, but I couldn’t find the time to do it before I left.” 

“If that’s the sort of thing that she wants, then I would go for it.” Nina said. “I would also maybe talk to someone who actually knows shit about relationships?” 

Nina had only ever been in three long term relationships, and all of them had fallen apart, two of them because of she was always traveling with her parents, and the final one, well, she still had no idea what had happened there. 

“I will, but I won’t be following any advice that Santiago gives me.” Marisa said, and Nina laughed. 

“He’s a character, that’s for sure.” 

“I’m glad you noticed. He would know more about marriage, but you probably know more about women than he does.” 

“Only probably?” Nina asked, still sort of laughing. “He’ll flirt with anything that walks, but he would not know what to do with a woman.” 

“No. He wouldn’t.” 

Eventually, they found Pike and Fisher again, and together, they all headed back towards the camp. Nina was glad for the distraction from matters of the heart, as Pike and Fisher were arguing about whether or not condiments could be eaten on toast. 

Nina, who had very strong opinions about topic, and also wanted to stop thinking about all the people that she no longer had in her life, found herself on Pike’s side almost immediately, while Fisher tried to argue with them and get Marisa engaged in the conversation at the same time, but on their side. Marisa was laughing at them more than anything, and they all dissolved into laughter as they bounced their way back up the road. 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, no beta, we die like men (I did read it over a couple of times, I promise).


End file.
